Gundam Wing: The Little Princess
by The Pyromancer
Summary: The year is AC 195 and Earth is at war with the Space Colonies around it. To counter, factions inside of the colonies build and send five Mobile Suits known as Gundams to Earth to defeat the Earth Sphere Alliance Government and the organization running things behind the scenes, OZ. A retelling of the show where little changes lead to much larger ones. Starting with a Male Relena.
1. Ch 1: The Little Princess

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Gundam Wing.

**Gundam Wing: The Little Princess**

**Chapter 1: The Little Princess**

Relena Darlian walked slowly down the street, the sounds of the ocean calming his heart. Just to his right, water stretched as far as he could see, painted orange by the setting sun. But instead his attention was inward as he contemplated his recent trip into space. His father was an Ambassador between the Earth Sphere Alliance, the Organization who ran the planet whose name they borrowed, and the Space Colonies that surrounded and orbited the planet. Ambassador Darlian believed in allowing his only son to learn personally about the politics of the world and they weighed heavily on him constantly. Things weren't getting better, no matter how much negotiating went on. The Earth Sphere Alliance threatened and oppressed the Colonies, which weren't even armed. And in the Colonies people were starting to get anxious for freedom. There had even been mutterings of plans to break free from the Earth, violently.

Relena gave a sigh, turning to watch the ocean. His attention was once more brought away from the breath taking sight by something washed up on the beach. It was a bright yellow blot on the otherwise pristine beach and something about it just drew Relena to it. He stared for a moment through the fence separating him from the beach until it dawned on him what the object was.

"There's a person down there!" he exclaimed, rushing to the nearest entrance to the beach. As he ran he dialed for an ambulance, telling them where to meet him. Forcing open the gate he rushed down the stairs and onto the sand, the fine particles coating the bottom of the legs of his school uniform.

It was only as he reached the person that he realized just how small they were. They were laying, unmoving in a space suit and Relena feared that he had arrived too late. Kneeling down by the person he reached out and removed their helmet. He was surprised by what he saw underneath.

"He's just a boy!" he gasped.

Relena could hear a siren approaching and he hoped it arrived in time. He glanced over his shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse, but his attention was once again drawn back to the boy, who groaned as they awoke. Relena stared right into his eyes as they opened, and were immediately filled with fear. The boy recoiled from Relena, bringing a hand in a futile gesture to block his face.

"Did you see?" he asked, his voice high with fear.

"Don't worry, help is on the way," soothed Relena. The ambulance siren got louder and he could seeing the flashing of its lights as it parked right by the entrance to the beach. Several EMTs jumped out and started to run hurriedly down the stairs.

Things took an unexpected turn as the boy suddenly flipped open a spot on his suit and pushed a big red button. Something clicked and ignited inside, causing a small explosion near his heart that did no damage to his or the suit. His eyes widened even larger and he hopped to his feet and rushed away from Relena. The Boy rushed up the stairs and fought his way quickly through the EMTs, kicking all four of them out of the way and onto the sandy beach below. Relena heard a scream as the driver of the ambulance was thrown out of the vehicle. The tires screeched as the ambulance shot away, taking the mysterious boy with it.

Relena just walked slowly up the stairs and stared after the retreating vehicle. He stuck out his hand, as if offering it to a girl to ask for a dance.

"My name is Relena Darlian, what's yours?"

The next day Relena sat in his usual seat in class, waiting for the lesson to start and wondering about the boy from the beach. All around him students were talking excitedly to each other. He heard something about a rumor about a transfer student but that wasn't an altogether uncommon rumor to hear. The instructor chose that moment to walk in, calling for silence.

"Before we start I have an announcement to make!" he yelled, the students throughout the hall quieting down. "We have a new student joining us today. Come and introduce yourself to the class."

The mutterings throughout the class started again as a girl with short, messy brown hair walked into the class, the standard puffy red school dress seeming much too large for her. She walked in calmly and coolly and turned to face her fellow students, an air of detachment about her.

"Hello, my name is Heero Yuy," introduced the girl curtly. She turned back to the instructor to find out where to sit, leaving the class mesmerized by her lack of any real introduction. Except for Relena, who was instead shocked for another reason.

"It's the boy from the beach," he muttered to himself, surprised. "He's a girl…"

It was later in the day at lunch that Relena finally went to confront the strange girl. He had distracted himself by passing out the invitations to his birthday ball, in priority order of those whose social status demanded they be attended to first. Having to deal with dancing around people's egos was a pain, but a necessary precaution for the higher social sphere of life. Finally Relena got to the person he really wanted to hand an invitation to, the mysterious Heero Yuy.

Other students watched in anticipation as he approached the mysterious transfer. Heero for her part just turned and stared at him with emotionless detachment, aware of his approach long before he reached her. Relena stopped in front of the girl and they just stared at each other for a moment. Then Relena put on his friendliest smile and held out his hand, an envelope held firmly in it.

"My birthday party is coming up and I would like to invite you to it," he said cheerfully.

Heero slowly took the envelope from him. The crowd of students around them started to clap at the display of friendship. Everyone was immediately silenced through as Heero deftly tore the letter in half, letting the pieces fall to the ground. Relena could only stare blankly in shock at the display.

"Why?" he asked, feeling tears start to fill his eyes. He had just wanted to befriend the girl, to find out more about her. Why was she so cold to him? Heero moved forward as if to walk past him. Instead of walking fully past though she reached over and wiped a tear from his eye, flicking it to the ground. As Relena started to feel hope again though, Heero leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"I'll kill you," she said calmly. Relena felt himself chilled at the ominous words as Heero just walked away, never staring back over her shoulder.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I've been re-watching Gundam Wing and this was my little experiment to see what would happen if I gender-swapped my favorite pair(and pairing) of characters in the series. The answer I came to? Basically absolutely nothing. The female characters already look more masculine than the Gundam Pilots in general (except for Dorothy who's pretty feminine appearance wise). And creator comments have said that Heero was designed after a woman (Yuki Uchida), who looks basically exactly the same. Fun fact is that Relena is based off of the Actress Audrey Hepburn. The urge to just turn this into Yuri was almost too great.

Also as I see it being male or female wouldn't really affect their personalities. Heero's an emotionless (in theory) assassin who could be any gender, sexuality or of basically any appearance and it wouldn't matter to the character unless it got in the way of the mission. As a guy I just imagine Relena looking like when she has her Peacecraft Uniform on. And personality wise, her quest for peace in the world is unaffected by what her gender is.

I also imagine that female Heero is shorter than male Relena, with a higher pitched voice, which makes the final exchange kind of hilarious in my mind.

Also going to attempt to release a new chapter of this each week. See if I can keep up consistency. I claim free reign to change character's genders, or not, during the course of writing this. Feel free to try to guess in reviews on who will become what, even I might not know ahead of time. Characters will be kept as in-character as possible, except for Trieze because he's an inconsistent sociopath who drags down the characters of Wu-Fei, Lady Une, Zechs, and Noin. Seriously, re-watch the show, he has no consistency in what he says and yells at anyone who thinks they have an inkling of his ever shifting ideals. He's a bi-polar man-child who yells at Une consistently for doing wrong, doesn't matter whether it's threatening the colonies or trying to take them by peace or with mobile dolls. Then he claims she's his favorite even though it makes no sense with the amount of times she's disobeyed or failed him. So yeah, not a Trieze fan.


	2. Ch 2: The Only Priority

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Gundam Wing

**Gundam Wing: The Little Princess**

**Chapter 2: The Only Priority**

Heero assessed the situation she now found herself in.

Mission: Destroy her Wing Gundam mobile suit before the Alliance Military could retrieve it from underwater.

Plan: Use captured torpedoes to hit the Gundam's weak points and destroy it either before it was found or after it surfaced with the retrieval team, depending on how the situation developed.

Hitch: Tracked down by Relena Darlian, a current target for assassination for seeing her face.

Current situation: A bullet wound to her shoulder and another to her leg.

Assailant: Apparently a young man dressed like a priest (or maybe a young woman, they were pretty androgynous and feminine with their long braided hair), who currently had a gun pointed right at her.

It only took Heero a second to run all of that information through her mind and to start thinking about how to deal with the situation. The Priest was babbling something about her being the bad guy, but she wasn't really listening. Then suddenly Relena moved in front of Heero, using his body to shield her from more shots.

"Stop it! What do you want to shoot her for!" he demanded, glaring down the Priest.

"What? Me?!" asked the Priest, surprised by the turn of events. "She was the one about to shoot you!"

Relena just ignored the Priest and turned to face Heero. He knelt down and took off the ribbon holding his long hair back and wrapped it tightly around her arm where the bullet wound was. He continued his inexplicable actions by taking off his suit jacket, and draping it around her shoulders. And then he ripped off the left sleeve of his dress shirt and wrapped it around her leg.

"How did I end up as the bad guy here?" asked the Priest. Suddenly their watch started to beep. "Hm? It's already reached the surface…I must have miscalculated the tide…"

Heero heard a roaring noise and saw her mobile suit being lifted out of the water and towards the shore.

"What in the world is that?" asked Relena, looking over at the mobile suit. The Priest pulled out a flare from their pocket and lit it, using it to hide Heero's Gundam from view.

"Don't look dude," said the Priest. "I'm sure you have your reasons for being here but you should just walk away. It'll save you a lot of grief."

Ignoring the flare, Heero used the distraction caused by Relena to run across pier, fighting back the pain.

"You haven't had enough?!" exclaimed the Priest, dropping the flare and firing at Heero. She ignored the shots though and leapt through the air, landing on the three torpedoes she had craned to the area before things had started to go wrong.

"It's my mobile suit!" yelled Heero. Fighting to not pass out from her two bullet wounds, she slammed her fist onto the control panel of the torpedoes. They were released from the crane and initiated their thrusters, landing in the water and shooting towards her Gundam. Heero for her part managed to launch off from the torpedoes, safely away from the thruster flames.

"What are you doing you idiot!" yelled the Priest, sounding panicked.

As the torpedoes shot through the water Heero fell through the air, allowing herself a satisfied smile.

"Mission…accomplished…" she grunted in pain. The torpedoes hit the Wing Gundam as it approached, but Heero was kind of surprised to see what looked like a similar model of mobile suit towing it to shore. OZ shouldn't have anything remotely close to her Gundam, so was she just seeing things? Oh well, they wouldn't have either for long. The torpedoes exploded, knocking the suits to the bottom of the sea once again. As she hit the water and lost consciousness, Heero heard the Priest yelling.

"Noooooo!"

* * *

Heero started to come to consciousness and knew something was wrong immediately. Calling on her training she kept calm, keeping her pulse at a level consistent with sleep. She could hear a methodical dripping noise, coming from her right. She recognized it as the spot she had been shot in, she must be bleeding. Slowly opening her eyes she looked around, taking in her surroundings. She recognized the room as the interior of an Alliance critical care medical room for possibly dangerous patients.

_I've been captured_, she thought to herself. Without turning her head she flexed her left arm slightly, finding it bound tightly. She did so with such calm that even if the Alliance doctors had sensitive monitoring equipment on her they wouldn't notice a difference in her biometrics. _I'm secured to an operating table. Leather restraints attached to metal affixed to the table. They must have picked me up from the harbor._

Heero could make out two figures in a viewing booth above him. They seemed to be talking to each other about something but she couldn't read their lips from her angle. One of the figure's attention was brought to somewhere else and walked away, leaving the other one alone. That one picked up a newspaper, obviously content that she wasn't waking up anytime soon. Heero flexed her right arm, tugging at the restrain, feeling pain lance through her from the bullet wound. It would be bearable though. She did the same with each of her legs, feeling the wound in her leg aching a bit also. The figure in the both lowered the newspaper and looked down at her, then returned to reading, having noticed none of her subtle movements.

_I need to get out of here before they feel the need to check again,_ she thought to herself. Heero started to fight subtly against the restraints on her arms, grunting a bit at the effort. Her attention was drawn to a hospital monitor on the other side of the room that suddenly turned on, the slight drone of static filling the air. Heero wasn't surprised to see the Priest who had shot her. They struck her as the type of person who couldn't leave things alone and had to always be involved. And talking. The Pries started to speak, the sound on the monitor disabled but their message reaching Heero anyways.

"I see that you have no choice but to lie there," said the Priest. "I'm sure a talented gal like you could read my lips. Well, can ya'?"

Heero just turned away and closed her eyes as if sleeping still. She kept one eyelid open just a crack, and turned to see the message from the Priest.

"Your acting is just amazing. You regained consciousness without increasing your pulse or brain waves. I've got a few questions I'd like to ask you, if you're feeling up to it. I thought I'd help you break out, what do you say?"

Heero didn't even bother to nod, knowing that the Priest was going to bust her out anyways. She noticed movement up in the viewing booth as saw the figure in it turn to greet someone. Two new figures walked into view, one running up to the edge of the viewing room window. She hoped that whatever the Priest was going to do, they'd do it quick before the Alliance decided to try to wake her up and interrogate her. To pass the time she very subtly fought against the restraints around her right arm. She could feel them digging in, but ignored the pain, even when blood was drawn. Eventually she managed to free her right arm without arousing suspicion, waiting for the Priest's signal.

A slight ticking filled the large, empty room and one of the far walls exploded, smoke and dust parting to reveal the Priest, a backpack over their shoulder. The ringing of alarms started to fill the air,

"Time to liven things up buddy," they said with a smile. They ran over, dropping their pack and looking at her bonds. "Damn! How do you get these things off!"

"Hand me a knife. I'll cut them off," said Heero, holding out her right hand to take the Priest's knife.

"Ug, what did you do to your hand?" asked the Priest, looking at all the blood covering it. The Priest noticed the broken restraint where her arm had been. "Damn, you've got some guts."

Heero cut her restraints, starting with her left arm, then her left leg, then her right leg. She jumped off the operating table and followed the Priest as they picked up their backpack, and handed it to Heero. She realized it was a parachute. On the Priest's belt she noticed a propeller rod, used to help fall slowly to the ground.

"This way!" they said, running down the hall.

She saw the Priest pull out a small grenade and chuck it at a wall that she knew led outside. In mid run they both dropped to the ground, bracing for the explosion. Not missing a beat after the grenade went off, they both got up and ran to the new exit. Together they leapt out of the building. The Priest hit a switch and the propeller rod sent out a tiny concentrated beam of energy then started to spin, slowly their decent. Heero had other plans though, ones that didn't include her parachute. She flew past the Priest, hurtling towards the ground.

"Hey!" yelled the Priest, noticing her fall. "Are you crazy?! Hurry up and release your parachute!"

Heero just closed her eyes and didn't even bother to control her fall. Finally, she could complete her mission. Deprive the Alliance of any useful Intel from her that could expose the people she worked for or that she had come from a space Colony in a Gundam to wage a war against the Alliance and the members of the Organization known as OZ that was controlling them from within.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" yelled the Priest again. Heero just ignored the noise. It was all almost over…But suddenly, she heard a cry…

"Heero!" came a worried voice, somehow carrying over the rushing of the wind. The voice triggered something inside of her, and without thinking she opened her eyes and pulled the chord to release her parachute. The chute deployed, but she had fallen too far, it wouldn't be enough to stop her fall. She aimed herself towards a rocky cliff and threw off the parachute. With the superhuman reflexes drilled into her since she was a young child, she landed on the slanted cliff face, trying a controlled slide down. But her momentum was too great and she lost her balance and just tumbled down the rocky cliff on her side.

"Agh!" she grunted, rolling down the hill, being bruised by every impact. She instinctively used her arms to protect her face as she fell. Eventually she saw that she was almost all the way down to the beach and tried to control her fall once more. She failed and tumbled down the beach, rolling for quite a distance until she finally halted in the sand.

Ignoring the pain, as soon as she stopped, she stood up. She was still too close to an Alliance facility and needed to get away quickly if she didn't want to be caught. The Priest landed with ease on the sand next to Heero, letting the propeller rod fly away into the cliff face.

"Damn it!" muttered Heero, clenching her fist. "I released my parachute…why did I do that…"

"Now I can understand you wanting to take your own life," muttered the Priest angrily. "But maybe, just maybe you should consider another way to commit suicide girlie!"

The Priest walked over and took Heero's arm, slinging it over their shoulder. She was kind of glad for the assistance, she was too injured to move away from the facility at anywhere near fast enough on her own. She could see a patrol boat approaching from the ocean.

"I'm not asking you to trust me or anything," said the Priest. "But right now I'm the only friend you've got." Together they hurried away from the facility, getting into a truck that the Priest had kept near the hospital. Heero closed her eyes and relaxed as the priest sped away, taking them to safety and hopefully, to her mobile suit if possible.

After a quick infiltration Heero, and the Priest (who had identified himself as Duo Maxwell, the God of Death and 'that awesome guy', several times for each) were quietly using a stolen marina platform to fish up their Gundams. The fact that there had been two Gundams to take the blast, and that in the chaos of the shootout Heero had missed her mark a bit, they had survived mostly intact. Now Duo operated the crane while Heero took care of some other business.

"Hey!" yelled Duo from his seat in the crane. "What're you doing down there?"

Heero just ignored him, laying on her back and gripping her leg. Grunting, ignoring the pain she pulled harder, and harder until…a sickening popping noise filled the air as she reset the broken bone in her leg. Bandaging up the last of her wounds she looked over at her newly resurfaced Gundam.

_Now, time to continue my mission,_ she thought to herself. She also tried to ignore the fact that Relena's voice had cause her to pull her parachute…and that she recognized it as his.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **And chapter 2 is now up! The first few chapters are just going to be a repeat of the show, introducing the Gundam Pilots and showing the 'little changes' mentioned in the summary. After that though things will start changing. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worst. You'll have to read to find out!


	3. Ch 3: Recollections of Change

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gundam Wing.

**Gundam Wing: The little Princess**

**Chapter 3: Recollections of Change**

"And soon the Alliance will be brought to justice for their crimes against the colonies!" proclaimed Mei Ran triumphantly, striking a valiant pose. Wu fei just ignored her over-enthusiastic husband, there was nothing for her to gain out of encouraging such idiotic behavior. Married by custom at 14, neither of them were exactly enthusiastic about being wed. Mei Ran just took her silence as a challenge though and moved to stand directly in from of Wu Fei, forcing her attention on him. "Why are you so gloomy all the time? A woman should smile when she hears that justice will be brought down on the wicked."

"Justice doesn't exist in this world," replied Wu Fei flatly, turning away from Mei Ran and focusing on the book she was studying, one on the history of ancient China.

"It's sad that you believe that," said Mei Ran. "But that's what I'm here for. I'm going to bring back justice to this world, and return faith to those like you who have lost it. That's why I'm now reclaiming the title of the ancient hero Nataku! His strength will be mine and justice will be served!"

"You're too weak to call yourself Nataku," replied Wu Fei, looking over her shoulder dispassionately at Mei Ran. "You couldn't even defeat me, let alone the whole Alliance. Weaklings should just sit back and let the strong rule. It's just a waste of time and effort otherwise."

"If you think you're so much stronger than me, then let's fight!" declared Mei Ran, taking a fighting stance. He was from the legendary Dragon Clan, which was once renowned for its fighting prowess, but was now reduced to a state of weakness, exiled to an ancient dying space colony on the fringes of human territory. Mei Ran was the strongest warrior in the modern Dragon Clan, but Wu Fei knew that didn't mean a thing.

Mei Ran waited for Wu Fei to take a fighting stance, which she still didn't. With a scowl of frustration, Mei Ran charged at Wu Fei, trying to force her hand. Wu Fei skillfully dodged under Mei Ran's attack and using his momentum against him, flipped the overextended warrior onto his back. When he tried to get up, he found Wu Fei's foot posed for a lethal strike right at his throat if he made a move to get up. They stared down each other for a moment, Mei Ran scowling while Wu Fei just stared impassively down at her husband. With a scoff Wu Fei moved away from her fallen foe and back to her book.

"You're so weak, this is pointless," said Wu Fei, flipping to find her lost book page. "Justice is only for those who are strong enough to take it."

"Then why don't you do so!" shot back Mei Ran, tears coming to his eyes. "You're strong, yet you do nothing! I need to be the strongest because of people like you!"

Before Wu Fei could respond, an alarm went off in the colony. Sirens and warning lights flashed throughout, signaling an imminent attack. Mei Ran's personal comm unit crackled to life.

"Sir," reported a technician who served the Dragon Clan. "Several of the Alliance military's Leo mobile suits have breached our perimeter and seem intent on wiping everything out. They have refused all attempts at communications and are headed to this base right now."

"The Alliance!" shouted Mei Ran, equal parts fear and excitement in his voice. He turned to look at Wu Fei, as if challenging her to say something. "I'll show you what true justice is when I wipe out these soldiers and make the will of the colonies known to the Alliance!"

"Have it your way," scoffed Wu Fei. "You're just going to waste your time."

"You're coming too!" said Mei Ran, grabbing Wu Fei's arm and dragging her down the hall towards the base's Hanger. Wu Fei just sighed and went with him. It was all a waste of time anyways. They ran through the maze of tunnels that made up the base, the sounds of explosions getting louder and louder as they went.

Eventually they made it to the base's hanger bay. The only vehicles in the hanger were two oversized mobile suits, one still missing some of the armor plating around it. The completed one was all white with a set of rocket boosters on its back. On its head it wore a helmet with a red synthetic plume on top as its only stylistic decoration. Wu Fei remembered it as the Tallgeese, the prototype model to the modern Leo mobile suit standard for use in the Alliance military force. The Tallgeese was larger than the standard Leo and had been deemed too expensive to produce and too demanding on the pilot to be safe for use. Only two units had been made, one stored here, and one in a museum on Earth. The other, still incomplete mobile suit was just as large, and much different from the Leo. Instead of being made out of Titanium it was made out of Gundanium Alloy, a metal that could only be made in outer space. This made it much tougher than its cousin and gave it the designation as a "Gundam". The Gundam itself was designated as the Shenlong Gundam, and it was to be outfitted with a wide variety of weaponry to make it suitable for almost all forms of combat.

"With these the Alliance won't know what hit them," smirked Mei Ran confidently. He ran to the Tallgeese, the only one of the pair that was completed, and hopped into the cockpit. With a wave he closed the cockpit and then shot out of the hanger, towards battle.

"What the hell does a weakling like him expect to be able to do?" asked Wu Fei.

"To end the oppression of the Colonies by the Alliance I'd assume," said a voice behind Wu Fei.

She turned around and saw the creator of the Tallgeese and Shenlong, Master O. He was a large bald man who at one time had been one of the premier geniuses for the Alliance, before defecting from Earth to help arm the colonies. He was also a master of various types of martial arts, making him a very dangerous foe. Wu Fei didn't know why he didn't pilot a mobile suit, she suspected he was either a hopeless pilot or had some type of illness that didn't allow it. Or was a coward, something Wu Fei didn't like considering.

"He's a weakling and a fool who doesn't know his own limits. He can't even beat me, a woman, in a fight."

"You're an exceptional person, I doubt most people could beat you in a fight," replied Master O. "It's not really a fair comparison."

"You can," admitted Wu Fei. Master O was one of the few people she couldn't beat, and who she liked sparring with for that very reason. It helped temper her sense of pride.

"Give it a few years when you actually have a decent reach and I won't stand a chance. But even so, Mei Ran will fight, because he believes in a higher goal, just like everyone else on this colony. We're all willing to give up our lives to defeat OZ and free the colonies."

"Which is why you are going to sacrifice the colony by dropping it on Earth for Operation Meteor," muttered Wu Fei darkly, her feelings on the plan well known.

"It's unfortunate that this attack had to happen now though," said Master O, ignoring her complaints. "The Alliance might very well exterminate everyone here before we can do anything. And all of our plans will be wasted."

"It was all a waste anyways. No one here is as strong as the alliance. The weak shouldn't even bother fighting."

The sound of explosions had only intensified while they were talking. Master O walked over to a console and turned it on. The images shown on the large screen were of the Tallgeese zooming across the battlefield, taking out a Leo suit with several well placed shots. But the Tallgeese was still out numbered four to one. Things would get worse if the Leos called in reinforcements; the Colony didn't have that option due to the jamming separating them from each other. Wu Fei watched as Mei Ran failed to control the thrust of the Tallgeese and almost crashed into the side of the colony. It was a big area but the Tallgeese was designed for open space, the thrusters were too powerful. And the G's inside of the suit must have been killer. Next to Wu Fei, Master O just shook his head.

"The suit's too powerful for a pilot of his level. It'll kill him in a matter of minutes at this rate, assuming those Leo's don't get him first," sighed Master O in resignation.

Wu Fei felt a cold feeling in her chest, something tightening. The enemy Leo's started to blast at the Tallgeese, only hitting with every couple shots, but each impact caused the feeling in her chest to grow worse. Unable to watch any longer, Wu Fei turned away from the monitor and ran across the hanger. Master O turned around and saw where she was headed, yelling out in panic.

"What are you doing!" he yelled as Wu Fei sat down in the cockpit to the Shenlong Gundam. "That Gundam isn't complete yet!"

"It's complete enough," replied Wu Fei, closing the cockpit and powering up the suits thrusters. She blasted off out of the hanger to where Mei Ran was. As she flew, she took stock of the weapons loaded onto the suit. Currently it only had a pair of headed mounted Vulcan guns and a beam glaive attached magnetically to its back. The right arm of the suit was missing completely and still undergoing development. It would have to be enough though.

Wu Fei emerged out into the open field of the colony and saw the fight ranging in its usually calm space. The flowers that covered the area had been flattened or blasted away in large swathes, leading to a haunting quality in the area. The Tallgeese flew around the area, only able to dodge the shots from the three Leo suits. Each time it did so though, its reaction for the next movement was just a fraction slower. It was only time before Mei Ran would be unable to dodge at all.

Taking the beam glaive in her left hand, Wu Fei charged at the nearest suit. The pilot, having been concentrating on taking out the Tallgeese was unprepared as they were chopped in half by the green energy beam. The pieces fell to the ground and exploded, a fuel line probably having been cut and ignited. The other two Leo's turned to react to the new threat but were too slow. With a yell, Wu Fei charged forward, her thrusters stirring up a large cloud of flowers around her.

"Yaaaa!" she yelled, swinging once more with her glaive, taking out another foe. She turned to look at the last enemy and pushed the switch to fire her Vulcan guns, riddling the enemy foe with bullets. She only stopped when the counter clicked empty. The last Leo collapsed to the ground, torn to shreds by the onslaught.

Wu Fei heard a crash behind her and turning around expecting more enemies instead saw the Tallgeese, collapses onto the ground, unmoving.

"Mei Ran!" she yelled, the constricting feeling in her chest returning.

She walked the Shenlong Gundam over to the Tallgeese and opened the cockpit. Dropping a line down, she descended to the ground as fast as she could. Jumping off several meters off the ground, WU Fei landed in a crouch and ran over to the Tall Geese. She pushed a button on the outside of the suit and entered in the override code, opening up the cockpit from the outside. Inside she saw Mei Ran, unmoving.

Mei Ran!" yelled Wu Fei, panic overrunning her. He didn't respond though, so she yelled again. "Mei Ran!"

"Wu Fei…" muttered Mei Ran, opening his eyes and looking at Wu Fei. "Ha, to be saved by my wife…"

"How are you feeling?" asked Wu Fei.

"How are the flowers?"

"The flowers?" asked Wu Fei, confused. "Those aren't important!"

"I failed to even protect some flowers from being destroyed, didn't I?"

"No, you're strong," replied Wu Fei. "Stronger than anyone else."

"You're much more worthy of the name Nataku than I am…" said Mei Ran, his voice trailing off at the end. His eyes closed and his head lolled to the side.

"Hey!" yelled Wu Fei," shaking Mei Ran, trying to get him to open his eyes once more. "Isn't it a husband's job to protect the wife?! Don't leave me now you coward! Open your eyes!"

* * *

Wu Fei opened her eyes, looking around the cockpit she had been sleeping in. She looked at the clock and saw that it would be time to start her mission in a few minutes. She hopped out of the cockpit, which was lowered to the ground, and looked around her surroundings. Nearby was a truck that had held the ordinance and parts she had just used to refuel and restock her Gundam. Next to the truck was a motorcycle and a large satchel, containing a large amount of explosives for use in her next mission. Turnng around she surveyed her Gundam, a cameo net draped over it. The Shenlong Gundam had been long completed and she had taken it to Earth to bring it the justice of the colonies.

"Earth has been so disappointing so far," Wu Fei said to the Gundam, making the final preparations for her mission. "Maybe we'll finally find a real challenge at this next place Nataku."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm sorry to everyone that this chapter took so long. I have Chapter 4 being edited by my beta as I write this and Chapter 5 was started and is a good way to being completed. The reason for this is that chapter 5 was originally chapter 3 and was put on hold due to me deciding that chapter 4 would make a better chapter 3. Also, so that I could deal with a big problem facing me in this fic: Wu Fei.

Now, I said in chapter 1 that switching Relena and Heero's genders didn't change things. And honestly, it changes none of the characters in the show that much, except for Wu Fei. Why is this? Because he's a jerk. Seriously, giving me so much trouble he has somehow become one of my favorite characters to write (not my favorite character(s), that's Relena and Heero, but he's still fun to write in a strange way). Going in, I knew all of the gender flips I was going to do, except for Wu Fei. Canonly he comes off as sexist, and his back story has to do with his wife dying. So, how do I take such a character and change their gender, or should I even bother?

At the time of facing this question, I also got busy with school work, so that contributed to the delay. It was when I was two chapters late posting that I finally started to figure out what I wanted to do. I'm showing Wing to the two 7th grade twin boys I tutor as a reward if they finish their work before I leave, and I was explaining the characters to them. They had just seen episode 4, the Victoria Base Nightmare and were, like when I had been their age, not huge fans of Wu Fei. I explained his back story, which helped things, but there was also the problem of his sexist attitude, which even they were aware of. As I thought it out and we talked, I realized that he isn't necessarily sexist. Wu Fei despies everyone who is weak, but tries to fight. He thinks only the strong should bear the burden, those like him who are strong have this obligation. He would have hated Noin even if she was a guy. It's why when he loses to Trieze that he freaks out so much, because it meant he was weak and shouldn't be fighting.

So I had my Wu Fei, and it was a concept I could do as a girl. But I realized that Wu Fei really comes off as an asshole if their's no back story to accompany her, so I needed that. I started writing it at the beginning of what was now chapter 3, having left off at right when Noin takes out Wu Fei's bike. I wanted to really get down this characters thoughts before I wrote them interacting with Noin. The back story went over 2000 words, so I split it off from the main chapter, partially for pacing and flow reasons.

And that's the story of my procrastination. Hopefully I'll get caught up by the end of this weekend so I can fall behind next weekend. ;)


	4. Ch 4: The Never Ending Nightmare

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gundam Wing.

**Gundam Wing: The Little Princess**

**Chapter 4: The Never ending Nightmare**

Lieutenant Lucrezia Noin, Instructor of the prestigious Victoria Base Training Camp, felt her heart beating hard in her chest. What she was about to do was going to be harder than any mission she had been on, even suppressing a revolt at the age of 10. No, this time, she'd be needing to hold back; hold back on feelings starting to well up inside of her, demanding to be let out.

_One year and twenty-one days,_ thought Noin to herself. _It's been so long since I last saw Zechs. Missions have kept us apart for so long, but now… Well, no use waiting any longer, time to make the call._

She ran a hand through her short black hair. With a deep breath to compose herself, Noin pushed the button on the wall comm. She had already entered the frequency for Zech's carrier. After a brief pause, during which the comm officer was probably verifying her identity, she was transferred to a comm screen. Noin automatically saluted Zech's showing her the respect she deserved, and then opened her eyes to look. She was floored by what she saw, even though she had expected it. In front of her was the very image of a dashing soldier. Lieutenant Zech's Marquis, also known as the Lighting Count for her prowess on the battlefield, sat on the other side of the screen clad in her bright red military outfit, well cared for like usual. Long platinum blonde hair hung down her back, coming out from under a silver mask that covered all of her head except for her cheeks, mouth and chin. Clasping her hands to her chest for a moment to regain her composure, Noin leaned into the view screen, a smile on her face.

"It's been quite a while Lieutenant Zechs," she greeted formally.

"You're looking quite good yourself Noin," replied Zechs, politely, all business like usual.

"I hear you're been pretty busy these days. Rumors about the Lightning Count have made it all the way down to Victoria."

"I don't like such rumors," replied Zechs, looking displeased. "I've become the target for enemies striking out at OZ and allies expect more than I can handle."

"You always did like to underestimate yourself," replied Noin with a sad smile. "You're a great pilot and soldier, you shouldn't tell yourself otherwise, even if you're worried not being good enough. Because you are."

"Thanks," replied Zechs, smiling slightly from under her mask. "I've heard rumors about you also. You're doing a good job training the new round of pilots. Also that you're a superior all around soldier. I feel like if it's you the rumors are probably true."

"I appreciate your confidence," said Noin, smiling at Zechs through the view screen.

"But Noin, I don't get one thing," said Zechs. "You used to hate wars. Why all the effort?"

"My efforts are for my love of outer space," replied Noin. "These pilots will be the ones patrolling space to keep it safe, if I train them correctly, they'll be able to keep it as serene and peaceful as it once was and deserves to be."

"Ah, there's the Noin I know. We'll be there at Victoria Base shortly. I hope we can continue our conversation then."

"It'll be my pleasure," said Noin. I'll leave you to your flight then, Noin out." She saluted Zechs who returned the gesture, then clicked the button to terminate the call. The screen flashed off, reflecting her own features. She took a deep breath and released it, her heart still beating in her chest. "Well, I'd better get everything prepared for her arrival then."

* * *

"Lieutenant Noin seemed happy to talk to you," said Otto, one of the soldiers under Zech's command. Otto was a great soldier, followed orders, competent and extremely loyal to Zechs. This last part bothered her because she didn't like to think of herself as someone who was worthy of such high praise, but she got it anyways and appreciated the people who put their trust so heavily in her none the less.

"Noin's a very friendly person, unlike me," replied Zechs with a self-depreciating smirk. "Noin's probably the only one who will welcome an annoying Lieutenant like myself."

"Didn't you two graduate from the Lake Victoria base together?" asked Otto, continuing to look forward as he flew the plane. Zechs just leaned back in her command seat, watching the scenery fly by below as the sunset, turning to night.

"I'm surprised you know that."

"Everyone knows about the top students of all time from the Lake Victoira base," replied Otto. "I also know that you were the top student."

"Noin was always aiming for second to make me look good," said Zech's remembering their days as students together.

Training, eating, sleeping, fighting and growing together. Noin had been her first friend since she had taken on the name Zechs Marquis at the age of ten. She was also one of the few people who knew her old name, Millardo Peacecraft, heir to the Peacecraft monarchy of the Sanc Kingdom. Or at least she would have been, if the Alliance Military hadn't gone in and killed her parents and taken over the kingdom. Unable to do anything she had fled, leaving her younger brother with a trusted advisor of her father. The Alliance Military had feared the Peacecraft's commitment to total pacifism, a terrifying concept with the power to change hearts and minds and put an end to the need of the military itself. On a thin excuse they had invaded a country that couldn't, and wouldn't, fight back.

Zechs had long given up on her father's ideals though. She had given up her name and any rights along with it for one goal, to reform the world. She might be weak, she might be a coward, but she would succeed. And to do so she had enlisted the aid of Trieze Kushrinada, the current leader of OZ. With his help Zechs had learned how to become a superior soldier, a pilot with only one purpose, to be a weapon. But she still found herself mourning every death, still found herself hesitating to fight the battles she knew had to be fought. Noin would never agree, but Zechs knew she was a much braver person. But soon, that would change. In the back of the cargo hold of her plane was a mobile suit unlike any other, the Tallgeese. It was the original Prototype for the Leo mobile suit and had been decommissioned for being too large, too powerful and too expensive for the Alliance Military's needs. But Zechs knew it was the only thing that could allow them to fight the Gundam's tearing through OZ's military bases. She needed to pilot it, and make a total commitment to fight.

"I hate to inform you," said Otto, snapping Zechs out of her reverie. "But we've lost track of the Gundam that was spotted near this area. Reports say it's just up and vanished."

"It's probably headed to the Taurus suits at Noin's base," deduced Zechs. Victoria Base was the only target of value in the region.

"The Military is being imprudent," complained Otto, always one to complain openly about the idiocy of others. "Even children know that the new Taurus space mobile suits meant to patrol the colonies are being manufactured at the Lake Victoria Base."

"We'd better head there as fast as possible then to give her our support."

* * *

Zechs arrived shortly after all the trainees and most of the staff at the base had turned in for the night. They would have a busy early morning due to that being when they were going to ship the pilots and suits out. A heavy guard detail protected the Taurus suits though, just in case. Noin was waiting on the tarmac as Zechs' plane landed. She helped get them parked in a hanger bay and direct them to where they could stay. All the details of their arrival and the supplies they would need had already been taken care of hours before.

So with everything sorted out, Noin and Zechs had retired to the base's break room. She had had it installed as a way to help relax her soldiers. Since many of them were young, she had designed it like a nightclub, complete with flashing, color changing lights and a sound system that could rival the best. It also doubled as a safe room, with the ability to lock down extremely tightly in case of an emergency and the sound system was set to be overridden and turned off in the case of an important base wide message or alert. Now they were standing around in the break room, the only two awake at such an hour. She poured them each a class of wine; a fully stocked bar was an important part of any graduation ceremony after all. Her trainees had finished up just the other day, she wished Zechs had been there to see it, but at least she was here now to witness her soldiers' triumphant journey to space.

"When will we slip the Taurus's out?" asked Zechs, leaning against the far wall away from the bar.

"0700 hours tomorrow," replied Noin, facing her from the opposite side of the room.

"That's soon."

"I've heard the enemies won't show on radar, so we've got extra soldiers on patrol watching for them."

"That's the best strategy," complimented Zechs. "Good thinking Noin."

"I appreciate your confidence Zechs," replied Noin, smiling at her masked companion.

"This room's rather cheery," said Zechs, looking around at her surroundings.

"Many of my soldiers are young and restless, I thought this style would suit them." Zechs studied her for a moment, concern on her face.

"Don't go getting too attached, or parting will hurt," she cautioned.

"Thanks for being so concerned," said Noin honestly. "But my soldiers aren't ever going to be killed in battle. They've been trained not to overdo things. In my mind, the value of life over war is something that can't even compare."

"Several soldiers of mine have died already against these Gundams," said Zechs sadly. "Noin, I disagree with your philosophy."

"Battles that risks lives are miscalculations!" yelled Noin angrily, glaring at Zechs. How could Zechs even say something like that? It hurt Noin to see her so pessimistic, even if she had never been super cheery to start with. "I pity the soldiers who get killed odd due to their commander's incompetence."

Zechs just stared at her, a frown on her face, her eyes unreadable behind her mask. Nion wondered if she was disappointed in her, sad with the whole concept or just worried, either in general or for her. Despite how she came off to many, Noin knew that Zechs really did deeply care for people. The loss of several of her soldiers recently must have come off as a large personal failing on Zechs part, even if it was no way actually her fault. Noin just wanted to walk over, rip off Zechs mask and kiss the other woman, letting them comfort each other's worries, and support their ambitions, like they had while training at Victoria base. Her thoughts were interrupted as the phone next to her rang. She answered it, taking the receiverfrom its socket in the wall.

"Noin here," she said, wondering who would be calling at this hour.

"Lieutenant Otto here for Lieutenant Zech's Ma'am."

"I'll put her on," replied Noin. She handed the phone to Zechs. "Lieutenant Otto for you."

Zech's took the phone and listened for a while as Otto gave her a report, probably on the mobile suit Zechs had brought with her.

"Sounds good," said Zechs into the phone. "Thanks for letting me know and keep me posted."

"Good news?" asked Noin, walking over to Zechs as she hung up the phone.

"Apparently the Tallgeese is much more advanced of a suit than originally thought," replied Zechs, turning to face Noin. "Repairs are currently estimated at a month's time. Is it fine for us to trouble you that long?"

"Nothing you do is trouble for me," replied Noin. She covered the distance between them and placed her hand on Zechs shoulder.

"You might think differently after suffering my company for so long," said Zechs sadly, gently moving Noin's hand from of her shoulder.

"I kind of doubt it," said Noin, moving her hand back towards Zechs, this time to rest on her cheek.

* * *

Noin was jolted awake by a loud explosion, the picture of Zechs on her nightstand tipping over from the shock, the glass cracking. Sirens started to go off all around the base as Noin threw off the covers and ran over to the wall comm of her room. The image crackled to life and Noin saw a young officer whose name she couldn't currently remember. The officer saluted her quickly while red emergency lights flashed in the background.

"Lieutenant!" said the officer, looking like he was about to have a panic attack.

"What's going on?" asked Noin. People were running around in the background and yelling reports to each other. Noin struggled to hear the officer's report.

"It's an attack! The trainee dorm has been blown up!"

"What?!" yelled Noin. "It must be the Gundam pilot! That coward didn't want to face us directly! Get scouts into mobile suits now! Scramble everyone and get that bomber captured or killed! Prep the beam canon, we'll need some serious fire power if this thing activates. And send an order to have my Aries prepped, now!"

"Yes Ma'am," replied the officer. Noin cut the connection and rushed to get her boots on. Out of habit from her old days in the 1st mobile suit unit she slept in combat pants and a tank top. She was glad for the time this saved as she ran out of her room, which was situated in the main command building, and outside. She saw the trainee dorm, collapsed and smoking from the bombing. Small fires were blazing, but firefighting and search and rescue teams were already swarming the area. If anyone was alive or could be saved, the emergency teams could help them. Noin forced herself to turn away and ran towards the hanger where her Aries suit was being kept. She wanted to rush and help her trainees, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle what she saw. Zechs was right, she had let herself get too attached, but even if she couldn't save them, she could still avenge her soldiers. She arrived at the hanger and took the lift up to the cockpit situated in the chest of her suit. It was a variant of the usual bulky Aries mobile suit that was just painted gun metal green. As she sat down and closed the hatch, her comm screen flashed to life.

"Noin," said Zechs, looking at her from the other side of the screen. She was wearing her usual red uniform, her mask still obscuring her features. Noin wondered if she had just been awake since they had parted several hours previously, or if she just never changed out of those clothes anymore. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going after the bastard who killed my soldiers," growled Noin, running through the sequences to bring her suit to life. "If they won't fight like a man, then I'll take them out like an animal."

"You can't go out there if you don't have a cool head," replied Zechs, with maddening calm. "You're better than this, you know the mistakes that could be made fighting like this."

"So you wouldn't sit around and try to avenge any of your fallen soldiers if you had a chance?" asked Noin.

"You know I would. But not like this."

"I'm sorry Zechs, but I need to do this," said Noin sadly, her heart aching in loss.

"Good luck then," submitted Zechs. She ended the communication, leaving Noin once again alone. She gritted her teeth and taking the controls in hand, shot out of the hanger. As she looped around searching for the bomber she saw a figure on a motorcycle racing away from the base towards the forest. They ignored all the check points around the base, driving straight through the barriers in their way.

"There you are," muttered Noin to herself. She shot towards the motorcycle and activated her comm. "I've found a figure racing away from the base on a motorcycle! Highly suspect they're the Gundam pilot or someone related. Send back-up to my position now!"

As she raced towards the bomber Noin activated her suit's exterior speaker.

"Stop and surrender or I'll shoot!" she yelled, giving the bomber one last chance. But instead of slowing down they just continued forward, pushing the motorcycle to its limit. Noin shut off her speaker and sighted on her target. "Do they have support troops…the Gundam!"

Noin fired her main gun, her shots tearing through the ground as she tried hit the motorcycle. It wasn't easy. She was trying to hit a small target and both machines were moving at high speeds. But she was skilled and all she needed was a glancing shot. The ground right in front of the motorcycle exploded and the bike flipped end over end. But the driver was also skilled, and at the last moment jumped off of the bike and rolled away from Noin's stray bullets. They landed on their feet, their back facing Noin. She stopped and hovered close to the bomber, flashing a spotlight on them.

"Surrender!" yelled Noin over the speaker.

The bomber put their hands up over their head and turned around. Now that she was close she saw that the bomber was just wearing a tank top and some type of martial arts style pants, a satchel across their shoulders. She also realized that the bomber was very young, probably barely a teenager. She had them though, and that's all that mattered. Any sudden movements and they were toast. Reinforcements were on their way and no sign of a Gundam. If they managed to get their hands on an undamaged Gundam, the benefits to OZ would be astounding.

But sadly the bomber didn't seem in the mood to be captured. In one swift motion they threw the satchel into the air and kicked it, sending it rocketing up at Noin. The explosives inside went off, blinding her briefly. When her sight had returned, the bomber had already taken their motorcycle and driven off into the forest.

"Damn it!" yelled Noin, activating the thrusters for her Aries and flying towards the forest, hoping to catch up to the bomber before they got to their Gundam. It was too late though. She watched in horror as a large white and blue shape stood up out of the trees, and looked right at her. The Gundam held out its right arm a contraption moved forward from the forearm, snapping into place what looked with the maw of a dragon. Then the dragon leapt at her, extending from the arm. Noin tried to evade it, but her surprise at seeing the weapon had cost her precious seconds. The dragon clipped her Aries, ripping off the left arm and sending her tumbling to the side, crashing on the ground just short of the forest.

Noin tugged at the controls, trying to move, but they were non-responsive. The Gundam would be on her any moment and she couldn't do anything. Where were those reinforcements?

"Lieutenant!" Noin heard the call over the comm and saw four Aries suits flying towards her. Two were holding the experimental beam canon that was to be shipped up to space with the Taurus suits and tested there. The output had proven to be too much for the canon to handle on Earth, but at least it would be able to get a good shot off on the Gundam.

"Don't worry about me!" she yelled over the comm. "Get the Gundam!"

"Yes ma'am," replied the pilots. They were well trained, and two of them moved forward to surround and suppress the Gundam while the other two charged up the laser, trying to get a good shot on the Gundam.

Sadly, the Gundam pilot was also well trained, probably even better. And they were in a superior suit full of features that Noin probably couldn't even imagine. One of the pilots strayed too close to the ground and wasn't able to ascend quickly enough as the Gundam charged at it, chopping it in half with a beam glaive. The second pilot kept their distance, but was struck down by the same dragon claw that had gotten Noin. This time it was a direct hit and the claw crushed the Aries, causing it to explode in its grasp. The Gundam quickly turned to face the two Aries with the beam canon, but was too far away to get them before they fired. Or so Noin had thought before the Gundam once more surprised her. It threw it's glaive with unerring accuracy at one of the Aries, taking it out. Without its partner to hold up the beam canon, the remaining Aries listed to the side, causing the canon to fire off in a path that tore through the forest, but completely missed the Gundam. Noin heard the pilot's screams as the Gundam charged at them and picking up their glaive, bisected the last Aries.

But the nightmare wasn't over yet. The Gundam picked up the beam canon and aimed it at the hanger bay that the Taurus suits were being kept in. She could only cry out in helplessness as the Gundam annihilated the suits, no doubt taking out a large amount of lives with them. Tiny explosions rippled across the canon as it over heated from the two simultaneous firings, and the Gundam just dropped it to the ground were it broke into several pieces. And without saying anything, the Gundam fled. The damage was done, and the pilot no doubt didn't feel like dealing with all of the suits and pilots still remaining at the base. Noin just stared in helplessness as her foe walked away. She once more shook the controls of her suit, still not getting a response.

"Damn it!" yelled Noin, hitting her fists helplessly against her console. "Damn it!"


	5. Ch 5: The Dance of Death

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gundam Wing.

**Gundam Wing: The Little Princess**

**Chapter 5: Dance of Death**

"Hey No Name! What are you doing picking up strays!"

"She is just a civilian so I figured there was no reason to waste bullets. Unless you want me to kill her?"

"Whoah! There's no need for that. I was just wondering; it's out of character for you. You finally get an interest in the fairer sex?"

"No."

"Argh! You're no fun to tease! Lighten up a bit! It's depressing to an old man like me to see a kid like you being so serious. Already hurts me enough to admit that you're the best damn soldier and mobile suit pilot I've ever seen. If I could spare your skills to allow you a normal life I would, but I can't. I'm sorry."

"There is no reason to apologize. This is my job."

* * *

"Hey No Name!" The mechanic looked up to see a large, cheerful man approaching him on the walk way. "Gloomy as ever I see."

It wasn't a question, so No Name didn't bother responding. He didn't understand why people liked talking to him so much, he never replied unless they were a superior officer. This man, Trowa Barton, could probably be considered one, due to the influence and importance he held as the son of the man funding the project No Name was currently working on, as well as being the pilot for the mobile suit that they were currently working on. Trowa didn't need him to reply to feel like talking though, so he just continued.

"It's a great day! The Gundam is almost ready, and with it, Operation Meteor will soon be initiated. The Earth won't know what hit it! And, once the stupid Earth Sphere Alliance falls, it's MY niece who will take over running things." He pulled out a picture and showed No Name a picture of a smiling young girl who bore no resemblance to Trowa. "Mariemaia will rule and I'll be the hero who brought it about!"

"What is she going to rule?" asked another mechanic No Name didn't know the name of. He seemed to be stressed, and had a hand in his toolkit. "You're dropping a colony down on Earth and killing everyone there!"

"The Earth deserves it, they've had it too good for too long!" declared Trowa proudly.

It was the wrong thing to say though as the mechanic pulled out a gun and before anyone could stop him, he had shot Trowa, dropping the large man to the ground. Blood pooled from his body and No Name took a step back, avoiding stepping in it.

"I have family on Earth," explained the mechanic, his voice full of emotion.

"Its fine," said a voice. No Name saw the scientist in charge of designing the Gundam, Doktor S, walk onto the walkway. He looked sadly at Trowa's body. "I myself had just failed to convince this fool that going through with the Colony drop was a bad idea. Instead I feel we should just go after only OZ bases, they're the enemy. Would that work for you?"

"Yes," replied the mechanic.

"Good, then let's finish this thing," replied Doktor S. "Before the Barton foundation finds out that their heir is dead. Sadly, we also need a skilled pilot for this machine, and on short notice too."

"I can pilot it," said No Name, speaking up finally.

"You?" asked Doktor S, sizing him up. "What's your name anyways?"

"I don't have one, everyone just calls me No Name."

"And you have experience piloting mobile suits?"

"Quite a bit actually," replied No Name. "I worked for a rebel faction down on Earth, before they were all killed by a spy in our midst."

"Hmmm," said Doktor S, thinking. "You'll do."

* * *

"So you want to work at the circus, do you kid?" asked the Circus Manager, staring down the newcomer who had just approached him from out of the blue. Catherine watched, impressed as the young man just stared impassively back, unintimidated.

"Yes, I do," replied the newcomer.

"And why should I hire you?" asked the Manager. "I'm plenty up on employees so unless you have some actual experience or any reason to convince me, then get out."

Instead of replying this time, the newcomer just walked over to the nearby lion cage. The lion started growling at him, but he paid it no heed. Then, before Catherine or the manager could stop him, he had stuck his hand into the cage, directly in front of the lion's mouth.

"What are you doing you damn fool!" yelled the manager, rushing over. He made to pull the newcomer away from the cage but before he could, the lion made its move. But instead of biting off his hand the lion rubbed up against it, a contented rumbling coming from its throat. The Manager just gaped. "How?"

"Animals can sense fear," replied the newcomer, a slight smiling appearing on his face. "You just need to show none."

The manager looked once more between the lion and the newcomer. He stroked his beard in thought and seemed to come to a decision.

"Fine, you're hired. How do you feel about accepting the role of a fearless, masked clown?" asked the Manager.

"That would be perfect," said the newcomer.

"And what's your name?"

"You can know me by…Trowa Barton," responded Trowa, only a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"Amazing," marveled Catherine.

* * *

"You ready Trowa?" asked Catherine, quite pointlessly. He was ready. He was a soldier, and had been all his life, he was always ready. He didn't even bother to respond, just staring impassively at the brown haired woman through his mask, the right side a clown face while the left was missing, revealing his own impassive features. Catherine just gave a tired sigh, something she did often, and then she smirked. "Now don't flinch."

Catherine threw several knives into the air and deftly caught all of them, eliciting cheers from the crowd surrounding them. The circus tent was packed, and had been for the several days they had been in town. Either the crowd didn't realize that in the outside world a war was being waged, or they did and needed the distraction, it wasn't something he cared about either way though, only fighting the war mattered. Trowa was currently strapped to a wooden board, entertainment for the crowd. It wasn't a bad job though, it paid well enough; not that he needed money. His supporters were very well off and had supplied him with a small fortune before he had set off to Earth on his mission. But the job did supply food and a place to stay, always moving as it was. The moving around was the best part though, following the path of the circus meant that the attacks he was making on OZ bases seemed to be at random to any actual military strategist.

Catherine stared at him, part in concentration, and as part of the theater of things. She stared right into his eyes, and he just stared back. She threw the first knife, and it found its way right below his right armpit. The crowd roared its approval. With a larger smirk, Catherine threw two knives at once next, one flying right above his head, and the other by his left knee. She muttered under her breath, but Trowa was able to read what she said.

"Come on, it's no fun if you don't act a little scared."

She seemed amused. He wasn't paid to act scared, and he couldn't if he wanted to. She'd have to find her amusement somewhere else. He'd been with the circus for a month so far, and this was his first performance. Before it had just been practice and travelling. He didn't need to practice much, his job as it currently was was extremely easy; stand still, and don't freak out. Catherine had been almost omnipresent in that whole time. She couldn't be much older than him, maybe 18 or 19, but she acted like a mother to all the performers and workers who helped make the circus move. Trowa found her bearable though. He didn't need her help, but she'd make a good character witness if Alliance Military came snooping around. Although he doubted they'd actually listen, her presence and activity wouldn't be detrimental.

Now as she looked into his eyes, she seemed like she was starting to become unnerved. Maybe she saw something she didn't like? Trowa didn't really know and didn't care. He closed his eyes, bored with the theater of things. He reopened them as he heard the whistle of the knives headed towards him. He could tell from Catherine's frightened expression that she had messed up when throwing them. Three knives, one headed towards his left hip, one towards his right hand, and the last towards his left cheek. The first two were fine, but the last one was flying too close. It was going to cut his cheek if he didn't dodge. But it wasn't going to be that deep, so it was fine. With three solid thwaks, the knives embedded themselves into the wooden board. Trowa felt the slight trickle of blood down his left cheek. The crowd cheered, crazy about the whole spectacle. An aide can over and loosened his bonds, freeing him from the board. Moving away from it, he bowed theatrically to the crowd, eliciting more cheers.

Once they had their fill, he moved off the circus floor, Catherine and several aides with the wooden board following right behind. He didn't stop until he made it to the lion's cage, sitting down on a box right in front of it. The lion looked up at him, saw who he was and then went back to resting. Trowa looked up as Catherine walked in.

"Why didn't you dodge!" said Catherine, glaring at him.

"I don't get paid to dodge," replied Trowa simply.

"Do you no care about your life or anything?" asked Catherine, concern in her voice. It wasn't something Trowa had heard for a while, it felt…weird.

"I saw that your knife wasn't going to hit me. There wasn't any danger. If you're so worried for me, why didn't you aim better?"

"I was distracted," admitted Catherine. "Looking into your eyes, there was no fear. And beyond that, no care for anything. It was…saddening. I don't like to see anyone looking like that, especially people I know."

Trowa just stayed silent, not sure how to respond. People like Catherine who talked a lot, would eventually respond to themselves anyways. And she did.

"You should take care of yourself more," she said. And then she flashed him a smile, winking at him. "And smile a bit more. You're a handsome young man. If you smile I bet you'll be fighting off the ladies with a stick!"

She turned and started to walk away, but then something occurred to her and she turned around to face him, embarrassment on her face.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "I forgot to apologize! I was just chastising you this whole time instead! I apologize for hitting you and cutting your face!"

"It is fine," replied Trowa. Then he decided to add something else. Working muscles he hadn't for a long, long time, he flashed her a faint smile. "Don't worry about it."

"See! I knew you'd look better with a smile!"

* * *

Trowa sighed as he surveyed the battleground in front of him. His target was the Corsuca base of the Alliance. It contained an OZ factory that was creating mobile unit for the elite special Unit, known as the Specials, to use. The Specials were run directly by the leader of OZ, Colonel Trieze Kushrenada. His mission on Earth would be much easier if he took out the base, weakening the support to OZ.

His attack on the base had been going well so far. Despite no doubt having had Intel that he was headed to the base, and plenty of time to mobilize all of the bases' mobile suits, they still weren't putting up a tough fight. His Gundam's capabilities were varied and unknown to the enemy, putting them at a disadvantage, while he on the other hand knew all of what the Leo ground mobile suits (the bulk of the force he was against) and the Aires air mobile suits (top of the line suits no doubt piloted by the most elite of the Specials) could do.

Before worrying about the mobile suits, he focused his significant fire power on much softer targets. First were all of the stationary turrets. Before any forces could be mobilized, he had already destroyed the turrets with his load of micro missiles. The first responders were several groups of pilots in their Leo's. Trowa pulled up on the control stick and his Gundam, Heavy Arms, complied. Its left arm was equipped with a heavy Beam Gatling that could tear through even other Gundams if necessary. Heavy Arms swung the weapon in an arc, the spray of projectiles taking out an entire unit of Leo's in a single pass. He quickly followed up by using the two machine canons mounted on his shoulders.

"The enemy is so disorganized," commented Trowa, scanning the field quickly for his next target. He had been raised as a soldier on the battlefield, those not fit to fight, shouldn't even bother. "I wonder if the enemy commander is even trying to relay orders to their troops."

In his peripheral vision he saw tanks moving into position on both his left and right flank, trying to surround him.

"Strategically, when annihilating a small group of enemies, the best course of action is to cut of the retreat path and shower it with bullets. In this case, the commander's decision to surround and destroy the enemy was technically correct, however…"

Trowa didn't bother trying to use his left arm against the tanks. Instead he quickly turned and opened up his chest plating to reveal two Gatling guns hidden inside. They quickly showered the left rank of tanks with bullets, destroying them in a flash. Then, pivoting quickly on a single foot, he took out the other grouping of tanks, freeing him up from being out maneuvered.

"He should never have taken action before understanding his enemy's potential."

Trowa looked up and saw a blimp fleeing the battle. No doubt the commander trying to flee. Raising his beam Gatling he leveled it to take out the blimp but was assaulted by several Aires suits, swooping in to protect the commander. As they surrounded him, one charged in, no doubt realizing from his fighting style that Heavy Arm's was a long range combat suit. Or at least, that would be the case if Trowa hadn't made a little addition, just in case.

"Underestimating your enemy again," sighed Trowa.

A large combat knife, as long as his Gundam's forearm, popped out from its hiding place on his right arm. With a quick slash he tore the unsuspecting Aires in half, the pieces exploding harmlessly around him.

The rest of the Aires, five in total, had him surrounded though. He took aim at one with his beam Gatling, but a clicking noise signaled that he was out of ammo. He disengaged the heavy beam Gatling from his arm, freeing him from its weight so that he could fight with more mobility. He tried the chest Gatlings, but those also clicked empty.

"A minor oversight, he noted. "I'll need to install an ammo counter for all of my weapons in the future."

The group of Aires just hovered in position, studying him. One suddenly broke formation though, no doubt trying to capitalize on him being out of ammo.

"That was pretty fast," commented Trowa to himself. As he prepared to destroy the charging Aires with his combat knife, a bullet suddenly flew through the chest of the Aires, destroying it. Heavy Arms moved to shield itself from the explosion while Trowa looked for the source of the sniper. A shower of bullets started to rain from the edge of the base, more than even his Heavy Arms could supply. The Aires were torn apart, not even having a chance to fight back. Four of them exploded, while the fifth, the most competent it seemed, flew up and away from the battlefield. They were intercepted though as a mobile suit, a Gundam like his Heavy Arms, but clearly of a different design, charged onto the battlefield. The new Gundam ignored the shots fired at it by the Aires as if they were nothing, and using a pincer claw on its left arm, snipped the Aires in two with little resistance.

With the last of the enemies defeated, the newcomers focused their fire onto the Corsuca base, leveling it in seconds. They were mobile suits of a design Trowa didn't recognize, but not Gundams. They were all painted in colors appropriate for desert combat, and numbered, a whole mobile suit battalion. And the other Gundam, the one with the pincer, seemed to be their leader. The other suits made a perimeter around the two Gundams, which faced off. Trowa hadn't been informed of any allies for his mission, the exact opposite in fact. Everyone he met he was to treat as an enemy.

Trowa studied his opposite, looking for an opening. He found one when an OZ aircraft took off from a still intact hanger bay. As the other Gundam turned to look at the aircraft, Heavy Arms charged forward, firing his back thrusters for extra speed. He swung with his right arm, hoping to pierce through its chest and into the pilot with his knife. The other pilot was quick though and stepped to the side, dodging his attack. Quickly correcting, Heavy Arms pivoted on its front foot, letting the back one slide behind it. His foe noticed the maneuver, but wasn't able to react quick enough to dodge fully. Instead, Heavy Arms knife lodged in the enemy unit's armpit.

Before he could try to cut through though, the other Gundam closed its arm, trapping his knife. With its arm, the other Gundam grabbed onto Trowa's knife arm, locking it in place. Trowa directed Heavy Arms forward, kneeing the other Gundam in the stomach to try to separate them. But the other Gundam refused to let go and responded with a punch. Heavy Arms caught the punch and the two Gundams fought to see who was stronger, both apparently equal. Neither could move an inch, a true stalemate.

"The other pilot is good," commented Trowa. "And his suit is just as strong as mine. But he still has allies, this will end in my defeat."

But to Trowa's surprise, instead of a bullet to the back, something else happened. The other Gundam stopped moving. It just rooted itself in place, holding him with it. The chest armor of the other Gundam slid away and a ramp opened up. Out came a young man, no older than Trowa himself, wearing a pair of aviation goggles.

"We need to stop this!" yelled the other pilot, his voice reaching through Trowa's external microphones. "We shouldn't be fighting each other!"

Trowa was shocked at the other pilot's words. He gave himself a self-depreciating smirk. _He beat me to the punch, I guess that makes him the true victor here,_" thought Trowa to himself. Pushing a button he also deactivated his Gundam, opening the outside hatch. He emerged, hands up in surrender. The other pilot just smiled sadly at him.

"Put your hands down," he said. "I was the first one to surrender and come out, remember?"

"And that's why I'm surrendering to you," replied Trowa, keeping his hands up.

"I just want to talk to you, is that ok?" asked the other pilot, smiling cheerfully at him. "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner, and this is my Gundam, Sandrock."

"My name is of no consequence," replied Trowa. He saw Quatre's smile deflate and decided to change his answer. "But if you must know, my name is Trowa Barton, and this is Heavy Arms."

"It's nice to meet you Trowa," said Quatre, smiling again. "I never expected to see another Gundam piloting fighting against OZ like I am."

Further talk was interrupted as a speaker clicked on from one of the mobile suits following Quatre.

"Master Quatre," said a deep, worried voice. "Can we continue this conversation in safer circumstances?"

"Yes Rashid," replied Quatre, deferring to the pilot called Rashid. "That would probably be for the best. Everyone, prepare to move out and retreat!"

Quatre turned back to Trowa, who was still keeping his hands up. Couldn't be too careful with an unknown who kept so many subordinates around, even one as friendly as Quatre.

"Would you like to accompany us back to our base?" offered Quatre. "You'll be able to rest and resupply there. Plus, I would like to talk to you more if you're up for it."

"I accept your offer," replied Trowa quickly. If Quatre or his troops meant him harm, they had already passed up innumerable chances to do so. He was probably safe with this Gundam pilot. He'd make sure to stay on guard though, just in case…


End file.
